Pastor's Reflection 2025-01-23
PASTOR'S REFLECTION
On January 5, 2025 my life changed forever. My father died. Thankfully, he passed away peacefully and without any pain at the age of 98 after a short stay in the hospital.
As I reflect on his life and deal with the feelings of loss, I know that I am not alone. Besides my own family’s feeling of loss, I am also aware that the sense of loss currently being felt by many in Los Angeles area as the fires continue to rage. The wildfires have consumed over 12,000 structures. Twenty-seven people have lost their lives. Whole communities have been destroyed by the fires, leaving behind only charred remnants. Yet, even in the loss, there are stories of hope.
Last week Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater ventured back to his Pasadena home only to find that it had completely burned down. The fire in Pasadena destroyed nearly 40,000 acres and 10,000 homes. Among the rubble he did not find much however, one item that survived the fire was a single, unscathed book, “Sacred Fire: Torah from the Years of Fury 1939-1942”. Sacred Fire which was written by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira in 1943. Rabbi Shapira ran a secret synagogue in the Warsaw Ghetto. When the Nazis closed in on the Jews, he put his writings in a milk canister and buried them. Rabbi Shapira did not survive WWII but his writings did.
When Rabbi Grater found that book it felt profound. “It’s like the burning bush in the Torah,” he said. “On fire, but not consumed.” Of the hundreds of books that Rabbi Grater lost that day, Sacred Fire was the only one that did not burn. The other item the Rabbi found nearby was a framed Obama “Hope” election poster. The juxtaposition struck him deeply: a book about the Holocaust resilience and a symbol of optimism. “There’s fire, fury, and fear,” he reflected, “but this reminds us: nothing can extinguish hope.”
My father’s passing, like fires in LA, has felt at times overwhelming. His passing leaves a void in me yet, just like after a fire where the structures can be rebuilt, I believe, the heart can be healed after a loss. I know my heart will never be the same, but I am relying on God’s promise of healing and renewal.
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater’s story, like so many others, reminds us that hope can rise from the ashes. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3). My prayer is that we will all find ways to discover hope - even amid the ashes and even amid loss.
As I reflect on his life and deal with the feelings of loss, I know that I am not alone. Besides my own family’s feeling of loss, I am also aware that the sense of loss currently being felt by many in Los Angeles area as the fires continue to rage. The wildfires have consumed over 12,000 structures. Twenty-seven people have lost their lives. Whole communities have been destroyed by the fires, leaving behind only charred remnants. Yet, even in the loss, there are stories of hope.
Last week Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater ventured back to his Pasadena home only to find that it had completely burned down. The fire in Pasadena destroyed nearly 40,000 acres and 10,000 homes. Among the rubble he did not find much however, one item that survived the fire was a single, unscathed book, “Sacred Fire: Torah from the Years of Fury 1939-1942”. Sacred Fire which was written by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira in 1943. Rabbi Shapira ran a secret synagogue in the Warsaw Ghetto. When the Nazis closed in on the Jews, he put his writings in a milk canister and buried them. Rabbi Shapira did not survive WWII but his writings did.
When Rabbi Grater found that book it felt profound. “It’s like the burning bush in the Torah,” he said. “On fire, but not consumed.” Of the hundreds of books that Rabbi Grater lost that day, Sacred Fire was the only one that did not burn. The other item the Rabbi found nearby was a framed Obama “Hope” election poster. The juxtaposition struck him deeply: a book about the Holocaust resilience and a symbol of optimism. “There’s fire, fury, and fear,” he reflected, “but this reminds us: nothing can extinguish hope.”
My father’s passing, like fires in LA, has felt at times overwhelming. His passing leaves a void in me yet, just like after a fire where the structures can be rebuilt, I believe, the heart can be healed after a loss. I know my heart will never be the same, but I am relying on God’s promise of healing and renewal.
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater’s story, like so many others, reminds us that hope can rise from the ashes. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3). My prayer is that we will all find ways to discover hope - even amid the ashes and even amid loss.
Posted in Newsletter 2025-01-23